Baking the Vegan way.

I have always loved to bake my entire life. You name it, I have probably made it. When Dd (darling daughter) told me she was a Vegan, the first thing that crossed my mind was baking. How will I make her birthday cake with NO eggs? Cookies? Brownies? What is a Betty Crocker wanna-be supposed to do?

It is very easy to veganize almost any home made baking recipe. I have tried to do this with commercially prepared mixes and it was always a disaster. You have to replace the eggs, butter and in some recipes, the milk. For the milk, you simply use one of the many alternatives out there. You can use Soy milk, rice milk, oat milk, or any of the nut milks. Same measurements that you would use for standard Moo-cow milk.
For the butter in a recipe you will just with non-dairy margarine. The eggs are simple to replace also but you have to use different measurements. One way to replace eggs in a recipe is with Silken tofu. For every one egg, you want to replace it with 1/4 cup (dry measurement) of tofu. If you find that you are in the mood to back but only have Firm Tofu, you can use that too. You are going to want to whip that tofu into a frenzy with your mixer to smooth it out. That way you will not have any chunks. The tofu works really well in cookies. And believe me when I say this...If you do not tell your family it is in there, they wont even notice!
Another thing you can use to replace eggs is EnerG Egg Replacer. The measurement for one egg is 1 1/2 teaspoon of egg replacer and 2 tablespoons of water. For most standard recipes of 2 eggs, you want to mix up (in a seperate bowl) 3 teaspoons of the powder with 4 tablespoons of water. The mixture will get frothy and thick like an egg white consistency. Then just add it to your recipe. You can purchase this at any health food store and most health food sections of your local grocery store.
You also want to avoid using white sugar in your recipes. I use Turbanado sugar instead.
This past week, I veganized a tried and true blueberry muffin recipe and they turned out great! Dd loves muffins for breakfast and for a quick snack on the run.

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups of sifted flour
2 tbls of flour
1/4 cup of sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup of non-dairy margarine, softened
1/4 cup of tofu (mashed) or 1 1/2 tsp. egg replacer with 2 tbls. of water (mixed seperately)
1 cup of soy milk or rice milk
1 cup of blueberries
Sugar for tops
Temperature: 375 deg.
Time: Bake 20-25 minutes
Amount: 12 muffins
In seperate small bowl, toss together blueberries and 2 tbls of flour to coat. Set aside. (the flour keeps the blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the muffins.) In large mixing bowl, hand mix together the margarine, egg substitute of your choice, and soy or rice milk. Add dry ingredients in batches (dont dump the whole thing in at once). Do not over stir the batter. Mix enough to incorporate the dry with the wet but too much mixing is not a good thing. If you see blobs of flour in the mix, that is okay. Add the blueberries last and give it a light mix to incorporate.
Fill greased muffin cups 2/3 full. Sprinkle sugar on top of each muffin to coat. Bake until golden brown.

This recipe (non-vegan version) came from a 1950s version of Betty Crocker`s Picture Cook Book.

Your whole family will enjoy these muffins. They taste really good and you will wonder why you ever fretted over baking vegan!